In a night of wrestling, Lucha Underground delivered with its first night of Ultima Lucha. The show opened with a killer Falls Count Anywhere match between The Mac and “The Machine” known as Cage, with weapons placed throughout the temple. It followed up with a Tornado Trios Tag Team championship match pitting the defending champions Son of Havoc, Ivelisse, and Angélico vs The Disciples of Death. And the night finished off with Drago and Hernandez in a “Believers’ Backlash”: Think of a typical lumberjack match, but with fans holding leather straps and wailing on Hernandez whenever he was outside the ring.

Ultima Lucha:Night One brought a sense of finality between The Mac and Cage, and Drago and Hernandez storylines; and a twist to the trios title scene. It’s fantastic exactly what a pay-per-view should be, a series of matches culminating in a big payoff. And next week, Ultima Luchawill conclude in a 2-hour season finale with Prince Puma defending the Lucha Underground championship against Mil Muertes.

The concept of a wrestling show running on seasons is unheard of because it has always been an all-year-round gig with no off-seasons (as WWE has phrased). Even Steve Austin on The Steve Austin Show was perplexed because he believes that the product should be on every week so as not to run the risk of losing its audience. Plus it gives the boys a steady paycheck.

As a wrestling addict, the thought of not seeing Lucha Underground for the next couple of months is devastating. But it does allow a reprieve for the writers to come up with more storylines to keep the product fresh. Next season it is rumored that ECW-WCW-WWE famed Rey Mysterio, Jr., will compete in the temple. We’ve seen his battles with Johnny Mundo (John Morrison) and Alberto El Patron (Alberto Del Rio) in WWE; imagine Rey paired up against King Cuerno, Cage or Mil Muertes?

Lucha Underground, to me, is the best of both worlds: it has phenomenal wrestling and entertaining storylines. Although some of the storylines are a little out there, meaning that you kind of have to give in to the supernatural. But if fans have been able to follow Paul Bearer controlling The Undertaker with a mystical urn, then Catrina controlling Mil Muertes, and the Disciples of Death, with a mystical stone shouldn’t be that big of a leap of faith.

Again, Ultima Luchawill culminate on Wednesday, August 5. The silent champion Prince Puma will indeed be the underdog going into his title defense. Throughout the whole season of Lucha Underground, Puma, as the inaugural champion, has defended it against the likes of Cage, King Cuerno, Johnny Mundo, Drago, Hernandez, and Chavo Guerrero. But Mil Muertes is definitely his gravest challenge to date. And with his mentor Konan locked away in Mil’s coffin, Puma will be alone. And if the Trios championship match from Night One has shown us, the odds are against you when Catrina is around.

Will Lucha Underground end its season with a new champion, or will Prince Puma prove why he is the temple’s greatest warrior?

Don’t forget to like the post, share it, and subscribe! Links are available on the right hand column.

About the blogger: I love pro wrestling and all of its layers of athleticism and entertainment. I also love to read and write, which is why, hopefully, WrestlingTimesX will come across as different, in a better way, than anything else that you read on the web. My mantra on wrestling, in any state, is to love it then, now, and forever.

As Stone Cold Steve Austin pointed out on the LIVE Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network with guest Vince McMahon, it takes a good 20-30 minutes to set the hook in to start Monday Night RAW. Whether it’s The Authority, Seth Rollins, and John Cena on the mic, it should not take a half hour to start a wrestling show. Because as much as McMahon likes to say that pro wrestling is what his dad did, what the Superstars and Divas do in the “wrestling” ring isn’t ballet, it’s pro wrestling.

Monday Night RAW should start off with a wrestling match because that’s what gets the crowd pumped, not a 30-minute diatribe. Stone Cold isn’t the only wrestler with issues over the product, Colt Cabana of famed controversial 2-hour “tell-all” interview with former WWE champion CM Punk, has his own reasons for not tuning into Monday Night RAW anymore. With his friends Cesaro being bumped down the card, and–at the time–Daniel Bryan being off television, Colt really had no real reason to watch a show that has mostly talking. He then started mentioning alternatives to Monday Night RAW, alternatives that I myself have started venturing out towards.

Although NXT is contested underneath the WWE umbrella, the two are so polarizing in the way both shows carry themselves. Steve mentioned the intimate setting of a small crowd, and the low lights giving it that Indy feel. But what NXT does best is that it has simple storylines that is carried out in the squared circle. NXT R Evolution was a culmination of what a bunch of hungry talents can do when given the spotlight to entertain us–not by talking for 30 minutes–but by what they can do inside the ring. Just go back and watch the whole event and watch closely the NXT Women’s championship bout between (c) Charlotte and Sasha Banks, and the heavily spoken about main event for the NXT championship between (c) Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn. Once you do, you wouldn’t believe NXT was part of WWE.

Another alternative, which I started watching two weeks ago, is Lucha Underground on the El Rey network. Now, I stumbled across an advertisement for Lucha Underground on Twitter – follow me @WrestlingTimesX – and it looked bad ass. I believe it was a picture of Fenix with a plancha to the outside, and what was so interesting were the filters and outlines used to make the picture pop. Small things like that catch my attention because it tells me that the promotion takes the product seriously. The first show I stumbled upon was the crowning of the first Lucha Underground champion–talk about luck. Dario Cueto, the on-air Authority figure, declared that the championship would be decided in a revolutionary concept known as Aztec Warfare. Similar to the Royal Rumble set up, the match would begin with two luchas and every 90 seconds a new lucha would enter the fray. There would be 20 competitors in total, and contestants would be eliminated only via pinfall or submission.

I won’t spoil the outcome until my next post, which, by then, I except all of you to have seen it. You may not recognize any of the masked luchas on the show if you have never seen Mexican wrestling, but the matches are so entertaining that it will not matter. But to ease your transition into Lucha Underground, there are some familiar WWE talents featured on the card: the former WWE ECW champion, IC champion, and Tag Team champion John Morrison wrestles under the name Johnny Mundo; former WWE ECW champion, Cruiserweight champion, and Tag Team champion Chavo Guerrero, Jr. contends there, wielding a steel chair as his weapon of choice; former WWE ECW champion Ezekiel Jackson uses his 6’3 frame under the name Big Ryck (that’s right, Rick with a “Y”) to dominate the smaller luchas; Maxine if you recall from the “All-Divas” edition of NXT, she appears as Catrina, the girlfriend of Mil Muertes; and Ivelisse from the last season of WWE Tough Enough also competes there. Now, when I say compete, there’s only one other female competitor–Sexy Star–the women compete with the men. Oh, did I mention that Matt Striker is the English play-by-play commentator?

Bottom line: give Lucha Underground a shot, because I’ve certainly became a fan, especially with the latest news announced on Twitter – former WWE and WWE World Heavyweight champion Alberto Del Rio will debut on Lucha Underground very soon. What more reason do you need to check out Lucha Underground?

I found out about New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 9 during an episode of the Steve Austin Show podcast, when Steve had “White-meat babyface, jumpin'” Jim Ross in the intro. JR was set to head over to Japan to call the NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 event, what WrestleMania is to us but in Japan, for the American broadcast. Seeing as JR was calling the action, I knew I had to watch this event and thankfully I managed to get a copy of the event. But the damn thing is almost four hours long. I have not seen the full event, but I am in mid IWGP Tag Team championship bout pitting (c) The Bullet Club’s Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson – guests on a recent Art of Wrestling podcast, very hysterical – against the challengers Meiyu Tag’s Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata.

The matches are so different from the “Western style” because Japan competes in strong style, which is just that, strong, hard-hitting action. Wrestling is taken very seriously over there in the rising sun.

So those are just a few alternatives out there for you to consider. Not to say that you shouldn’t watch WWE, but just take into consideration that WWE isn’t the only game in town.

Question: The Royal Rumble is this Sunday, who’s going to win it? Roman Reigns? Daniel Bryan? Someone else? What are your thoughts, people!?

Don’t forget to like the post, share it, and subscribe! Links are available on the right hand column.

About the blogger: I love pro wrestling and all of its layers of athleticism and entertainment. I also love to read and write, which is why, hopefully, WrestlingTimesX will come across as different, in a better way, than anything else that you read on the web. My mantra on wrestling, in any state, is to love it then, now, and forever.

The current WWE Tag Teams champions is Daniel Bryan. Or it is Kane? Yes, the WWE Tag Team championship belts are held by the most dysfunctional tandem in recent memory. With both Daniel Bryan and Kane harking “I’m the Tag Team Champions!” and their well documented anger management issues, WWE has really put some personality back into its floundering tag team division.

Daniel Bryan and Kane, who were forced to team together by orders of their anger management therapist Dr. Shelby, have proven to be two explosive personalities that can agree on one thing: they love to cause pain. In a recent vignette, (inspired by the iconic scene from When Harry Met Sally) Daniel Bryan was intensely elated as Kane recounted their chair shot attacks on the entire tag team division. Although Bryan and Kane have issues following the other’s lead during matches, the result remains the same – they keep on winning.

The biggest testament to Team Hell No’s rise was their tag team main event spotlight on Monday Night RAW as Kane chokeslammed WWE Champion CM Punk for the deciding pinfall. When was the last time that the WWE Tag Team champions were in the main event? Or even the last time you heard of a tag team champion pinning the WWE champion? It’s almost unheard of, but what do you expect from two former World champions?

But a division cannot be carried by its champions alone, which is why SmackDown General Manager Booker T issued a single-elimination tournament to determine Team Hell No’s opponents for the Hell in the Cell pay-per-view. As of this post, so far the teams of Rhode Scholars (the newly formed unison of Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow), Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara, The Prime Time Players, and Zack Ryder and Santino Marella have advanced to the semi-finals.

Aside from The Prime Time Players who were called to the SmackDown roster as a tag team, and Rey Mysterio who is a multi-tag team champion throughout the world, the list of semi-finalist aren’t exactly well renowned for their tag team abilities. Be that as it may, what all these teams have in common is the brash confidence that they can subdue Hell No.

While much credit should be given to WWE for attempting to restructure and revive their tag team division, TNA Wrestling should also be commended. TNA, long known for their booming tag team division, have been in a slump for the past year. Yet in spite of Team 3D and Beer Money Inc. splitting so as to pursue solo careers, and The Motor City Machine Guns divided, TNA has prevailed under the conniving leadership of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian.

How did Daniels and Kazarian become the most hated individuals in the IMPACT locker room? Simple. Daniels and Kazarian attempted to tarnish the reputation of their former friend AJ Styles. With a series of doctored photos, audio and video clips, Daniels and Kazarian had the whole world believing, including Styles, that The Phenomenal One was having an affair with a recovering drug addict. The whole Claire Lynch storyline–though overdrawn and eventually making little to no sense–established Daniels and Kazarian as a dastardly duo that fans love to hate. Because seriously, how egotistical must one be to dub themselves the World Tag Team champions of the World?

So who has decided to oppose Daniels and Kazarian? Whereas the WWE can have eight tag teams to compete in a single-elimination tournament, TNA’s two-hour weekly time slot only needs two: the teams of AJ Styles and Kurt Angle, and Chavo Guerrero and “SuperMex” Hernandez. Styles and Kurt Angle are a dream team consisted of two of the most gifted wrestlers in the world; and Chavo, a tag team specialist throughout the world, coupled with Hernandez is a perfect small man-big man duo.

The two teams, though failing to unseat the champions on their own, are set to take on Daniels and Kaz in a triple threat match at Bound for Glory.

So whether it’s WWE or TNA, tag team wrestling is back on the rise. Thoughts on who the better tag team champions are?

That’s it for this post, feel free to subscribe to this blog if you like what you read and how it was written. If you love the writing so much and wish to propose a writing job, then you can submit all serious proposals at WrestlingTimesX@gmail.com. Follow me on the twitter @WrestlingTimesX.

One look at John Cena’s eyes told the story. His fingers grasped the WWE Title upon defeating the title-holder Rey Mysterio Jr. in an instant Raw classic. After the set backs in Chicago and Green Bay, Cena still remains employed in WWE under Triple H’s new regime, and has fortified his status, while at the same time reclaiming his bargaining chip for his Wrestlemania opponent–The Rock.

Then came the sounds of Living Colour blasting throughout the Hampton Coliseum, in Hampton, VA. “It’s not Alberto Del Rio,” Cena stated in exhaust.

It certainly wasn’t Del Rio, who had earlier attempted to cash his Money in the Bank opportunity against a newly crowned Mysterio; it was the man who has since amassed a cult following since exploiting the WWE of McMahon’s hypocritical ruling.

So what was Triple H thinking hiring back C.M. Punk? He no doubt respects Punk, as one wrestler respects another wrestler. But he primarily had to be thinking of Punk as a highly lucrative prospect. After all, WWE tried to carry-on as business as usual; even created a tournament to crown a new WWE champion, as if it had never been lost. However, the constant chants at live events, the rapid sales of t-shirts, and a recent confrontation at a joint WWE/Mattel panel at San Diego Comic Con spoke to Triple H.

C.M. Punk, trumping Cena’s crowd reaction as he hoisted up his WWE title, made it clear that he returned to remind the WWE who is its real WWE champion.

After coming face to face with C.M. Punk, the stand-off became too intense for the now-eleven-time WWE champion to take. Time and again, Cena has mustered through the split crowd reactions. “Let’s go Cena!” “Cena sucks!” Receiving links to video blogs from his WrestleMania opponent, reminding him of his inability to amount to his stature. Yet, his last two matches have proven that Cena can deliver in the ring. A new drive probably fueled from a recent string of constructive criticism regarding his matches from former WWE superstar Chavo Guerrero. But now C.M. Punk has returned, and John Cena walking away from the stand-off may indicate his uncertainty of his status.

Frankly, both men earned their respective WWE titles. The dilemma is who is “The Real WWE Champion?” Unlike Hogan-Flair and Austin-Rock, there has never been two World champions carrying the same title. Some state that Punk still remains the WWE champion, while others stake that after Punk’s contract expired, Mr. McMahon stripped Punk of recognition as the company’s WWE champion.

With SummerSlam just weeks away, the next probable course should result in a unification of the WWE championship. It certainly doesn’t seem unlikely that we will see Punk-Cena II at the biggest pay-per-view of the summer, but would it be wise for Cena to do so? He does hold two consecutive losses against the Second City Saint. But judging from everything we know about John Cena, he may not consider his current WWE title as the true WWE championship. Despite McMahon disregarding Punk’s legitimacy as the champion, John Cena knows that he cannot be honorably considered the real champion. He lost to C.M. Punk, and just because McMahon created a new-slimmer-title doesn’t change that fact.

“Did you know?” “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour was C.M. Punk’s ROH entrance theme.

The WWE, previously known as World Wrestling Entertainment, has lost its signature heavyweight title after C.M. Punk left Chicago with the WWE Championship following his pinfall victory over John Cena in the main event at WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Punk’s message to Mr. McMahon, his dislike of John Cena considered “the best,” was made loud and clear to McMahon and WWE brass that he is the “Best in the World.”

From C.M. Punk’s anticipated entrance, sporting a brand new t-shirt, handing said-shirt to his mother in the front, to sitting indian style in the center of the ring, the Allstate Arena were rabid for their hometown hero. Then when Cena’s “The Time is Now” entrance music kicked, a tidal wave of boos flooded the Allstate Arena, adjusting John Cena’s demeanor. He didn’t come out trying to pander to the crowd, or even tried throwing his red t-shirt into the crowd (he lightly passed it to a nearby fan who already owned the shirt.)

The match itself was incredible. John Cena (possibly reading what Chavo Guerrero tweeted) wrestled throughout the match, instead of his usual–let his opponent do all the work as he powers through at the very end with the 5-move-set. C.M. Punk wrestled Cena’s best match since arriving in WWE. Which is why doubts arose whether Punk would actually win the title. Here he is instilling the heart and passion of a “pro-wrestler” back into Cena, was this Punk’s final gift to WWE? A WWE where its “champ” is not simply providing the bare minimum to appease his top spot in WWE.

Punk pulled out all the stops: a head scissor locked in a figure-four leglock, a knee drop onto Cena drapped over the ring apron, and a frankensteiner. Cena attempted to put the Second City Saint away several times but C.M. Punk broke free from two STF submissions, and kicked out of two Attitude Adjustment fireman carry slams. When was the last time anyone kicked out of one of Cena’s AA, let alone two?

What fans had prematurely dubbed “The Chicago Screwjob” witnessed McMahon (along with gladhanded John Laurinaitis) call for the bell, sending Laurinaitis to notify the time keeper. But before Executive Vice President of Talent Relations had an opportunity to recreate The Montreal Screwjob, John Cena laid him out with a hellacious lariat, not wanting to win the match that way. However, Cena walked into a GTS that granted Punk the WWE Championship. But McMahon had one more “Ace” up his sleeve–Mr. Raw’s Money in the Bank winner Alberto Del Rio. McMahon called for Del Rio to cash in his opportunity, but was met with an enziguri by Punk as soon as he entered the ring.

With Del Rio knocked out, Punk cleared out of the ring with the championship, blew McMahon, and the WWE, a kiss goodbye, and ran through the Allstate Arena as the company’s final WWE Champion.

Tomorrow night on Monday Night Raw, John Cena will have to answer to Mr. McMahon because the stipulation going forth in to this match was: If C.M. Punk “left Chicago with the WWE title,” Cena would be fired.

As for Alberto Del Rio, since he didn’t officially cash in the briefcase, he is still guaranteed a shot at Raw’s World Title. Problem is, as of midnight July 18, 2011, Raw is no longer in possession of a World Title.

Christian finally became the World Heavyweight Champion by virtue of Randy Orton getting himself disqualified. A handy provision in Christian’s contract stating that had Orton gotten himself disqualified, or had the referee made a “bad call,” Christian would automatically win the title. Which is exactly what happened. Christian hawked a giant wad of spit at Orton’s face, which set off The Apex Predator to blatantly kick Christian with a low blow. However, Orton continued the assault by driving Christian with two RKO’s on top of the Spanish Broadcast announce table (which wouldn’t break).

As for Christian’s next challenge, will another fans’ poll require him to defend the title against Orton in the main event on SmackDown again?

Speaking of challenges, “The American Dragon” Daniel Bryan unhooked the SmackDown Money in the Bank briefcase in a very emotional career making moment. Since returning in the main event at SummerSlam 2010 as the surprise member of Team WWE, Daniel Bryan became lost in the shuffle throughout the winter of 2010 going into the spring of 2011. The move to SmackDown–via the WWE Draft–granted Bryan more television time, and an opportunity to work a storylined feud with Cody Rhodes. Think about it: This time last year, Daniel Bryan didn’t have a job, now he is in possession of a guaranteed World Heavyweight Championship opportunity for anytime within the next year.

Can Daniel Bryan win the big one?

It appears that The Miz injured his knee from a nasty drop after hanging unto the briefcase when the ladder was kicked from under him. Since stretchers and trucks were already used for both Sin Cara and The Big Show, The Miz had to be assisted out of the Allstate Arena on foot. But he did return for one final nail-biting performance. He was inches away from become a two-time consecutive Raw MITB winner, when Rey Mysterio sunset flipped powerbombed him — eliminating him from the rest of the match.

Wrestling Matters? After enduring a year and a half of The Hogan-Bischoff Regime plaguing the Impact Zone, stealing hours of on-air time, and diminishing everything that was Total Nonstop Action, now wrestling matters?

Welcome back to The Wrestling Times. Impact Wrestling officially arrived in the Impact Zone in the form of new sets. No longer black, red, and green, instead, Impact Wrestling is now blue and white. Considering that TNA’s rebranding to Impact Wrestling was a move to distinguish itself from WWE, it seems a bit silly to choose SmackDown’s colors. Let’s discuss Wrestling, I Want.

Has the Angle-Jarrett feud gone on too long? Frankly, yes. Because when a feud lasts long enough to have incoherent plot twists, gimmick changes, and several ultimatums, it’s considered too long.

At one point, Kurt Angle was fighting for custody of his kids. When that didn’t pan out, Kurt placed his wrestling boots in the center of the ring to signify that he had retired. Then Jeff Jarrett and Angle locked horns in an MMA exhibition (this was MMA Jeff Jarrett), then an Ultra Male’s Rules match, and now in a number one contender’s match to the TNA World Title with Angle’s Olympic gold medal on the line. Out of all the things that were important, how does it all come down to Angle’s Olympic gold medal?

For this to have been successful, the Angle-Jarrett feud should have started immediately when the world found out about Jarrett’s involvement with Karen. Dixie Carter and Co. should not have suspended him, to then pick up the obvious money-maker storyline a year later when no one cares anymore. So much time has elapsed from when the story was relevant to this present moment that Kurt has already fathered a child with his current girlfriend (not Chyna).

Interesting Question: Now that TNA is known as Impact Wrestling, do the names of the championships change as well? i.e. – TNA’s World Championship now Impact Wrestling’s World Championship? Or maybe shorten it to the IW World Championship?

IW’s Knockouts managed to get some much deserved air time, though not sure how flooding the division with former WWE Divas will help. Six-women Tag Team match featured three former WWE Divas in Knockout’s Champion Mickie James, Tara, and Ms. Tessmacher (Brooke), while the handicap match featured Winter (Katie Lea).

But the overall storyline throughout Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling, which was most intriguing, was Eric Bischoff’s vendetta against the X-Division. The division that truly set TNA apart from WWE because of the fast-paced, high-flying, high risk action may have been officially destroyed. Fortune’s Kazarian lost the X-Division Title to Abyss, Samoa Joe made short work out of Amazing Red, and Matt Hardy, mostly single-handedly, defeated Max and Jeremy Buck. Brian Kendrick, the voice of the X-Division, was not in action, but instead received a beat down at the start of the show.

Impact Wrestling recently revealed a poster for its “Destination X” pay-per-view, usually highlighting the X-Division, featuring the six-sided ring. Could the X-Division truly be gone, or is this simply the beginning on their road to Destination X?

Over on Friday Night SmackDown, considered by most to be WWE’s wrestling-based brand, the road to “Over the Limit” met its final pit stop.

Last week’s match between Sin Cara and Daniel Bryan was one of the best matches WWE has had to offer since Triple-H and Undertaker’s match at WrestleMania. This week, Chavo Guerrero attempted to put away Daniel Bryan with five-minutes on the clock. Great to see this concept implemented once in a while because it’s not about winning or losing, it’s simply a strict wrestling/grappling match.

At “Over the Limit” Chavo Guerrero will face Sin Cara, and if news of their house show bouts are any indication, this will be a great match.

From the six-man tag match pitting The Corre against Ezekiel Jackson and the WWE Tag Team Champions, the final scene of Jackson submitting Justin Gabriel with a Torture Rack was truly impressive. Because how often do you get to see someone tap out six-feet off the mat?

At “Over the Limit” Wade Barrett defends the Intercontinental Championship against Ezekiel Jackson. This could be a great opportunity for Ezekiel to work as the mid-level champion, while Barrett moves on to challenge for the World Heavyweight Title.

Important Podcast: If you’re tweeting, part of the Twitter Universe, then you’ve probably have come across this hash tag, #IWantWrestling. You can thank former WWE Head Creative writer Dave Lagana for rallying fans to let the world know that we want wrestling. Lagana recently conducted an amazing two-part interview with former WWE Superstar MVP. MVP, who now wrestles in Japan under the same name, talks about his time in prison, joining the WWE, his gimmick, his friendship with Chris Benoit, the face-turn, his departure, and joining New Japan Pro Wrestling.

That’s it for this post. If there are other parallels not discussed, please jot them down in the comment box, or send me a line on twitter. My twitter handler is WrestlingTimesX. There are also some nifty share buttons on the bottom: Spread the word!

Who would have thought that having your own ring announcer would catch on?

Welcome back to The Wrestling Times. Ever since WWE’s drastic draft lottery took place, the landscapes of both Raw and SmackDown have generated some similarities. Be it corresponding main event situations, gimmicks, or the like, it appears that Raw’s and SmackDown’s creative teams have either collaborated or stolen each other’s ideas. So let’s discuss the parallels.

The Mexican Civil War?

Have you noticed the rise of Mexican wrestlers in WWE as of late? As if WWE has finally realized the untapped resource of Mexican luchadores; or rather, the mourning period for Eddie Guerrero has finally passed. Chavo Guerrero’s current angle with Sin Cara (Mistico), which will result in a feud, is kindred to what’s taking place on Raw, Alberto Del Rio (Dos Caras, Jr.) is currently in the process of restarting a feud with Rey Mysterio.

Chavo Guerrero took it upon himself last week to announce Sin Cara at the start of his entrance. (Certainly a play on Ricardo Rodríguez’s job to Del Rio.) Chavo did this because he is under good authority (himself) that Sin Cara has been following in his footsteps, and has begun to refer himself as Cara’s mentor. And to show how committed he is to his student, Chavo guaranteed Cara the victory by stalling Daniel Bryan from delivering a high impact move. After witnessing Chavo’s misdeed on the titantron, Sin Cara was visibly upset.

How so? He wears a mask? ~ By striking his arms in very dramatic poses that conveyed anger. WWE has turned Mistico into a mime.

The broadcast team were perplexed when Cara became angry because a win’s a win in the WWE. Apparently that’s not how they do things in Mexico. Sin Cara believes in wrestling, and wrestles with honor.

Rey Mysterio has always had a similar philosophy in the wrestling ring, but has become so accustomed to WWE’s style of wrestling, he doesn’t mind picking up a victory any which way he can. But through it all, Rey Mysterio has always shown his Mexican pride in WWE by donning the mask because he considers himself a proud luchador; however, Alberto Del Rio doesn’t even consider Rey a real Mexican. He’s right, Rey was born in California, not Mexico.

With these Mexican heritage based storylines taking place on both Raw and SmackDown, will the WWE audience decide to expand their horizons and watch AAA and CMLL Mexican wrestling?

Kharma is a B—h!

Ever since making her debut at “Extreme Rules,” Kharma has been traveling to both Raw and SmackDown to deliver her painful message to the Divas. Now if only the same could be said of the Divas Champion, who has yet to travel to SmackDown for any title defenses.

Kharma’s constant appearances is definitely WWE’s way of exposing their newest acquisition, but could it also be a sign that creating two separate Divas storylines seems tedious at this point?

Rebuilding Factions

Whether it’s Ezekiel Jackson assuming a leadership role, or Mason Ryan’s testosterone levels running at an all time high, The Corre and The New Nexus have both had some internal strife.

Even Wade Barrett played with the thought of a singles career outside The Corre, but when the solution became apparent, the plans were nixed. Why tear away from a faction with so much potential when the solution was so simple–get rid of Ezekiel Jackson.

With The Corre originally a group of equals, the leadership role has once again been bestowed upon Wade Barrett. He will attempt to do as CM Punk did and lead by example when he defends the Intercontinental Title against Ezekiel at “Over the Limit.”

CM Punk defeated Kofi Kingston in a non-title bout to prove a point to his followers. Mason Ryan’s recent actions were most likely attributed to CM Punk’s string of loses to Randy Orton. By defeating Kofi, Punk has once again assumed control of The New Nexus, and has proclaimed that they will be the strongest. At “Over the Limit,” CM Punk has placed his faith in Mason Ryan as the two challenge for the WWE Tag Team Titles.

The remedy for these two waning factions came down to one vital trait: Having a strong leader. At “Over the Limit” Punk’s and Barrett’s leadership will be tested, and will be the deciding factor over the longevity of the groups.

World Champions moving on…

Christian said that if he was at 100% he could defeat Orton, which is why Orton came to Christian’s aid during a two-on-one assault. Orton wants Christian at 100% so that when it comes to defending the World Heavyweight Championship, there won’t be a doubt on who’s the better man.

The Miz has the daunting task of forcing John Cena to utter the words “I Quit.” He talks a big game, describing a number of ways to inflict punishment. Some of which he doesn’t plan on using because he doesn’t want Cena to have counter plans. But two steel pipe shots to the back was not enough for Cena to flinch during the closing segment on Raw. The Miz will have to tap into his inner Darkside if he expects to defeat Superman and recapture the WWE Championship.

Though there are a lot of differences to the build, the general theme is the same: The World Champions’ goals are to prove why they are the better men, and to cut ties from their challengers.

That’s it for this post. If there are other parallels not discussed, please jot them down in the comment box, or send me a line on twitter. My twitter handler is WrestlingTimesX. There are also some nifty share buttons on the bottom: Spread the word!